OB/Maternal be an elective class for male nursing students

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Seriously, I just spent $300 on a required book for my OB class not to mention countless hours this semester I'm gonna be at clinical.

Only like 1% of Male nurses even work in the OB field (obvious reasons), so why should this even be a required course for us guys? It's just frustrating knowing we have to dedicated an entire semester to this when we can take another class like Research/med-surge that will actually benefit us.

inb4 what are you gonna do when you have a pregnant patient??

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

You can allege that the many working professionals who replied should cut the BS...Sure it makes you come off as unprofessional and very immature, but you can say it.

Trouble is, they are not wrong.

Well my job outlook in L&D is essentially zero -- I won't work in L&D. Why should I be forced to take it simply because I have a lady parts, and why would a man get another option simply because he doesn't have one? Plus it might be out of compliance with Title IX to allow that. .. I mean your proposal would allow men an advantage over women in the form of the extra med-surg class. If I'd had the option, heck yeah I would have taken nursing electives in lieu of specialties I was not interested in... but your proposal would still require me to take OB because I have a lady parts, and because 99% of OB RNs also have lady partss.

I would argue that there are other rotations that are useless. Our day with a school nurse consisted of hearing and vision screenings... They train PARENT VOLUNTEERS to do the same thing. It would have been more productive to learn about the LSN's assessments, vaccine compliance, FERPA etc. -- i.e. nursing specific things. Ditto for our day in the jail giving flu shots and Mantoux. Injections are a monkey skill. OR?? Uff da... that was a day I'll never get back.

Also it is fair game for the NCLEX. If you're like me and passed in 72 questions, ok sure those OB questions won't break you. But if you are on the bubble, don't you want to have covered all of the information? Or would you rather be on the bubble hoping that you don't get any OB questions?

But anyway it really doesn't matter if the school is gleefully counting the member-having students' money. The BON requires students to have learned all of the material.

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Specializes in SRNA.

Lmaooo, this is just plain wrong haha. As a male who just finished nursing school I am glad I was required to take maternity and OB. In the ER we had ectopic pregnancy and a breech birth show up - then the opportunity to witness childbirth was all worth it. The point of Nursing school is to train GENERALIST NURSES not specialty nurses. That's why oh and maternity is required. I could make an argument about psych but outside of "psychiatry" everyone's a psych patient and we have to be able to provide therapeutic and medical interventions. Suck it up and do what you need to do and graduate.

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Nursing school prepares you to take the NCLEX. L&D is a large part of the NCLEX, and therefore your nursing program spends a correspondingly large amount of time teaching it. That's really all there is to it.

I struggled in my L&D class with a lot of the same thoughts you're having, but powered through and passed. I've not since touched a baby or a fundus in my career, but I did pass the NCLEX in 75 questions on the first attempt.

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The education programs are constructed to give you experience in all areas of clinical nursing, because nurses can end up literally _anywhere_ in their career. I am a woman, and have never had any interest whatsoever of being an OB or L&D nurse. However in my current situation I find myself managing among my staff a group of high risk OB case managers. My education in OB in college has given me the basics to be able to understand and relate to the challenges and situations that my case managers experience. In other words, you don't know where your career will take you and you never know when you might need it.

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.
there is plenty of diabetic people in this country. did we spend an ENTIRE semester learning about diabetic patients?

you can literally say the exact same thing for any other conditon. Next.

Folks have been very nice to you on this thread. You seem to have a chip on your shoulder.

Are you failing OB? Struggling? If so, know that your response to difficulty is everything in nursing. You need to be able to self reflect, find your deficits and fix them quickly. Those that can't or won't do this will not make it as a nurse.

You either need a miraculous attitude adjustment or another field of study. Stat.

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we have learned about females in our medsurge class (dedicated an entire test about male/female centered problems).

I am a female who has zero interest in maternal-child health. Should I also be allowed to opt out of that course for something I have more interest in? Although I didn't enjoy maternity/peds clinicals, I'm glad I had them as I often got pregnant women admitted to my med-surg floor and children admitted to my trauma floor.

BTW...ONE test is not all inclusive re: "females".

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Oh My GERD..... forget NCLEX.

What about Ectopic pregnancies, distortions, and even as simple as knowing if your patient is pregnant prior to med administration or getting films.

I can name a whole lot more. If l&d or ob or peds isn't important.... I suppose the rest shouldn't be too.

Sweet mother of hairless baby jessie... please give him or her some guidance! :woot:

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.
Oh My GERD..... forget NCLEX.

What about Ectopic pregnancies, distortions, and even as simple as knowing if your patient is pregnant prior to med administration or getting films.

I can name a whole lot more. If l&d or ob or peds isn't important.... I suppose the rest shouldn't be too.

Sweet mother of hairless baby jessie... please give him or her some guidance! :woot:

Sweet Mother of Hairless Baby Jessie would be a good name for a band.

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OP, I really hope I never end up at a hospital that employs you.

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Couple of things.

1. We all take the same NCLEX, so unless they change and specialize NCLEX (which I do not think is a bad idea) you will fail it if you don't know this stuff.

2. Like you stated, you probably won't use much of the psyche stuff either, but we all have to learn it.

The second test I took in nursing school I was cramming up to the last second before the test. The dean of nursing came in, and I had a question about burns so I asked her. Her response was "I have no idea, I haven't touched any of that stuff since I was in nursing school". The woman has a PHD and decades of experience being a nurse and was unfamiliar with some content in a first semester nursing class. She never used the information so she lost it. Is anyone here going to say that she was incapable of being a nurse because of it (I will concede, not in a burn ward)? Was she somehow being cruel to burn victims because she couldn't remember exactly what to do? I think not.

I think a good general knowledge is important. However in my case (being in a 2 year school), I think doing general things the first year would be great but than use the second year (or hell, just a semester) to do something more specific. I am not sure how financially feasible that is for your college, but in a perfect world that is what I think would work best.

Bottom line is this. I understand your argument but you do sound like a high schooler complaining why he has to learn history because "he will never use it". However I do think you have a solid point. I am a 200lb+ man who bench presses 300lbs. Somethings I can take for granted:

I will never have a 14 year old girl come up to me and ask me a question about her period

Preg. women will not want me to demonstrate proper breast feeding.

Rape victims will probably not want my counsel.

Ya learn it cuz ya learn it IMO. I got an A in Spanish in high school and all I know of it now is "yo caro taco bell!"

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Ya learn it cuz ya learn it IMO. I got an A in Spanish in high school and all I know of it now is "yo caro taco bell!"

lol "I expensive taco bell"

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I think the most frustrating thing for the OP (I hope) is the fact that men are discriminated against regarding working in these units. I don't understand why it is generally considered taboo for a male that is a nurse to work in an OB/GYN department. I have no particular desire to, but If such a fellow wanted to work in such a unit it is considered taboo among their peers. That's odd because there are plenty of men working as MDs in these units that are not subjected to taboo, and are not considered perverts or whatever the issue is. Why is that?

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